cognitive functioning [58]. In addition, in candidate gene studies in postmortem human PFC, hippocampus, and orbitofrontal cortex, increased mRNA levels of HMGB1, which encodes a proinflammatory cytokine and toll-like receptor genes have been associated with alcohol consumption in AUD cases, providing evidence for chronic neuroinflammation in response to alcohol [59–61]. Notably, there is an overlap of findings not only on the single-gene level but also on the level of pathways and networks/modules. This overlap underlines that alcohol consumption has common biological effects in different brain regions, i.e., most prominently, effects on immune and inflammation processes.
